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FRONTLINE: Prison State | Kentucky’s Prison Overhaul

Explore how our reliance on prison to solve social problems is creating a national crisis, and how the state of Kentucky is trying to respond, in this video adapted from FRONTLINE: Prison State. Kentucky spends more than $15 million each year incarcerating people from one Louisville housing project, Beecher Terrace. One juvenile justice commissioner suggests that we are incarcerating young people merely for their poor performance in school, problems in the home, or their unwanted behavior. A law professor states that we have invested in incarceration instead of in systems designed to help people stay out of jail and prison. In just over a decade, Kentucky’s prison growth rate jumped by 45 percent and spending by almost 220 percent—to nearly half a billion dollars. This prompted reform that includes the early release of nonviolent offenders in order to save money. This resource is part of the FRONTLINE collection.

The United States puts more people behind bars than any other country in the world. It has about 5 percent of the world’s population yet holds about 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated individuals. Each year, the U.S. spends over $50 billion to house 2.3 million inmates in federal, state, and local lockup and correctional facilities. According to 2013 Bureau of Justice Statistics, 716 out of every 100,000 people living in the U.S. were incarcerated (living in prisons or jails). Just counting adults, the figure was closer to 1 in 100.

There is a clear racial and ethnic component to incarceration. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, blacks (including Hispanic blacks) make up about 14 percent of the U.S. population. Yet in 2009, blacks accounted for nearly 40 percent of the total prison and jail population. Overall, in 2010, black men were more than six times as likely as white men to be incarcerated. This disparity has contributed to the rise of protest movements that we learn about in the news and social media, including the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, co-founded by Dr. Cornell West.

Between 1980 and 2008, the incarcerated population in the U.S. quadrupled. Most of this increase was caused by changes in sentencing law and policy, not an increase in crime. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, the number of criminal offenses dropped nearly 17 percent during that time. Many of the sentencing changes were made during Republican administrations in response to the crime rates of the 1960s and 1970s and to support the national “War on Drugs.” Mandatory minimum sentences for certain offenses, including drug possession, “three strikes” laws for repeat criminal offenders, and stricter parole and early release eligibility requirements, resulted in more prison sentences and longer time served. While the number of violent crimes has declined in the U.S., more and more people being locked up today are nonviolent offenders with no prior criminal record.

Because correctional costs are expensive, some states have attempted to reform their criminal justice programs. In Kentucky, a 2011 law allows nonviolent offenders early release, offering medical and mental health assistance to ease their transition back into society and reduce recidivism (a relapse into criminal behavior). Other state efforts focus on drug-sentencing reform and investments in rehabilitation programs to reduce the prison population.

To date, the results of state reform efforts are mixed. In other parts of the world, sentencing and corrections strategies have led to lower recidivism rates than in the U.S. For example, some European nations, including Germany and the Netherlands, are more inclined to issue fines and community service over jail time. One of their guiding principles is to keep nonviolent, convicted criminals as a part of society as much as possible, so that incarceration does not become their standard way of life. Over the long term, these strategies have saved money.

In the 1980s, as the incarcerated population rose in the United States, demand for more prison space and costs to individual states grew. The result was the development of privately run prisons. Private prison operators are for-profit companies, many of which issue stock shares. Arguably, their financial success is tied to a higher prison population. In fact, some of these companies require states that do business with them to fill prison beds or else reimburse the companies for empty spots. Some experts claim that while private prison operators may not have been responsible for the explosion in the prison population, they help sustain it today.

Here are suggested ways to engage students with this video and with activities related to this topic.

Viewing the video: Use the following suggestions to guide students’ viewing of the video.

Before viewing: Ask students the following questions:

Why do you think some communities have high incarceration rates?

For some states, incarceration has been the response to social problems at school or at home. Do you think this is a good policy? Why or why not?

Discuss this statistic: The United States accounts for between 4 and 5 percent of the world’s population, yet it incarcerates 24 to 25 percent of the world’s prisoners.

Do you feel tax money should be spent on stronger laws, tougher enforcement, and more jails or on social service programs designed to help people stay out of jail? Explain your answer.

During viewing: Have students look for these key points while viewing the video:

the amount of money that states, including Kentucky, spent on incarcerating people for minor offenses

shifting the emphasis from locking up people we’re mad at to locking up people we’re afraid of

the actions that states, including Kentucky, are taking to reduce their prison populations

After viewing: Lead a class discussion based on the following questions.

Why do you think that “incarceration has become the response to every social problem we encounter”?

Why do you think politicians might be reluctant to change the system of incarceration for all offenses and move toward a less-expensive system that keeps nonviolent people in their communities?

How did the policy of incarcerating people for minor offenses impact the state budget in Kentucky? What prompted officials in Kentucky to rethink the policy? What did the state legislature do?

What are the alternatives to jail for minor offenders in Kentucky?

Doing a research project: In the video, Representative Tilley states that the U.S. includes 4.5 to 5 percent of the world’s population and approximately 25 percent of the prison population. Have students research how other countries keep their prison rates so much lower than the U.S. Assign individuals or small groups specific countries to research and report on. Their reports should include the name of the country, its overall population as a percentage of the world’s population, the percentage of its prison population to the world’s prison population, and a summary of how justice is administered, especially for nonviolent crimes. They should include specific examples of the sentences imposed on for both violent and nonviolent offenses.

Doing a class activity: Lead a group discussion based on the following questions from information in the video segment.

What do advocates and critics say about the policy of incarcerating someone for minor offenses?

What evidence speaks to the success or failure of this policy?

What are the alternatives to this policy?

Doing an individual activity: Between 1999 and 2010 in Kentucky, the prison growth rate rose over 45 percent. Have students explain in their own words the arguments presented in this segment against using prison sentences as a way to reduce crime. What are the issues? How did they come about? What do the people interviewed suggest as alternative approaches to prison sentencing?

Doing an individual or small-group activity: Have students take a stand for or against the issue of incarceration for those convicted of minor offenses. Have them hold a class debate, write a position paper, or write a letter to a political leader addressing the issue and stating the reasons to support their position. Students might also create a petition to demonstrate community solidarity—for example, a petition to promote a change from incarceration to an alternative means of punishment or a petition in support of maintaining the status quo.